Questions for the wizards

[bastion222]

So I have just recently unlocked the drow and I've been trying to decide weather I want a sorc or wiz first. I think I'm going wiz so I can get an idea of what spells I want to take. So I have a few questions for all you wizzys out there

1) Should I max out int at 20 during creation?

2) At what level should I take what feats?

3) As a wizard do I need to increase my UMD? or does that come standard?

4) Is there any items that are good which should effect my starting alignment?

I think thats it for now, I'm sure I'll come up with some more. Thanks for any support.

[Raelg14]

So I have just recently unlocked the drow and I've been trying to decide weather I want a sorc or wiz first. I think I'm going wiz so I can get an idea of what spells I want to take. So I have a few questions for all you wizzys out there


I think thats it for now, I'm sure I'll come up with some more. Thanks for any support.

1) Should I max out int at 20 during creation? Yes although for disclaimers purposes my WF Wizard only started with an 18 and does quite nicely

2) At what level should I take what feats? I took Maximize first, then Extend, then Empower then Quicken

3) As a wizard do I need to increase my UMD? or does that come standard? Kind of depends on whether or not you want to be able to use cleric items. Obviously you can use all the Arcane items, level requirement notwithstanding but since it is a Cha based skill its not the easiest to get to the skill level. It is possible to get it to a very high rank however as you gett a lot of skill points as a Wizard each level. Again since my Wizard is a WF my UMD sucks anyway so I don't use it that much except for the occasional Cure Wand on a fleshy

4) Is there any items that are good which should effect my starting alignment? IMHO, not really I went True Neutral only because I wanted to avoid extra damage from various evil attacks (i.e. Skeleton Archers in the Wizard King) plus I had managed to find a +5 Docent of Stablilty at some point so....

[Solmage]

So I have just recently unlocked the drow and I've been trying to decide weather I want a sorc or wiz first. I think I'm going wiz so I can get an idea of what spells I want to take. So I have a few questions for all you wizzys out there

1) Should I max out int at 20 during creation?

2) At what level should I take what feats?

3) As a wizard do I need to increase my UMD? or does that come standard?

4) Is there any items that are good which should effect my starting alignment?

I think thats it for now, I'm sure I'll come up with some more. Thanks for any support.

1) Yes, yes yes! It's the only reason to use a drow, to use spells based on a high DC, which is based on a high int. If you're happy with a lower int, go warforged (self healing via spells), human (1 more feat), elf (a bit more mana) or halfling (self healing via feats).

Also, ALWAYS max int during levelup.

2) This varies with taste and purpose, but here is one of many viable paths:

1. spell focus conjuration, extend
3. greater spell focus conjuration
5. maximize
6. insightful reflexes
9. spell penetration
10. heighten
12. greater spell penetration
15. mental toughness or something else you like, maybe diehard, enlarge

3) Always increase your UMD, it does NOT grow automatically. Even with a base charisma eventually you get it to the point where you can use healing wands and far more importantly, use race restricted items. (Durn RR halfling +6 con belt..)

( A viable path is to put a decent amount into charisma and use your level 15 feat to use charisma instead of wisdom as your will save, making your UMD much much better than it normally would be. It's not necessarily a GREAT path, but it's viable and different. without gimping yourself )

4) Well, resurrection rings require you to be good, and unless you go the high cha route, will be about the only way you'll raise a few dead friends in the heat of combat, where you can't afford to burn 10 scrolls to succeed once on a raise dead. On the other hand, some end-game items your caster may acquire require you to be not-good...

You also take extra damage from unholy arrows and attacks if you're good..

I still went good with my wizard, and true neutral with my sorcerer. (The latter has no problems using raise dead scrolls)

5) Oh wait, I ran out of questions and I'm still bored at work. Ugh. Hum. Feel free to ask some more =)

[Talon_Moonshadow]

So I have just recently unlocked the drow and I've been trying to decide weather I want a sorc or wiz first. I think I'm going wiz so I can get an idea of what spells I want to take. So I have a few questions for all you wizzys out there

1) Should I max out int at 20 during creation?

2) At what level should I take what feats?

3) As a wizard do I need to increase my UMD? or does that come standard?

4) Is there any items that are good which should effect my starting alignment?

I think thats it for now, I'm sure I'll come up with some more. Thanks for any support.

1. Yes!
2. Depends on your own priorities and play style. Extend is very nice. Maximise and empower take too many SP for low lvl IMO. Heigten isn't necessary most of the time and usless at lvl 1 anyway. The component one is just a convienance thing IMO. Quicken can be nice....I have it and never use it for some reason. Enlarge I like! Only use it rarely, but it is nice for being an assassin with your spells. But I would prob pick Extend at lvl 1.
And you can respect feats later if you change your mind.
3. Not really. IMO UMD is best when trying to play cleric. Some people will disagree, but my Wiz has almost no UMD and does fine.
4. IMO there are only 3 aligments you should ever consider in DDO. LG, CG, N.
Neutral is only good for stability items....which do not stack with resistance and deflection items. I would recommend the other two over neutral.
LG and CG both have some good named items that require L or C alignments to use. Out of thise items I'm not sure which is better and I forget which items are which....sry. Not much help.
IMO choose LG or CG and I think you'll be happy with either choice.
Most of my toons are LG now.
Alignment matters more for weps than anything else......and Wiz don't really care too much about alignment.
But maybe some other players will have beter advice.

[Litz]

So I have just recently unlocked the drow and I've been trying to decide weather I want a sorc or wiz first. I think I'm going wiz so I can get an idea of what spells I want to take. So I have a few questions for all you wizzys out there

1) Should I max out int at 20 during creation?

2) At what level should I take what feats?

3) As a wizard do I need to increase my UMD? or does that come standard?

4) Is there any items that are good which should effect my starting alignment?

I think thats it for now, I'm sure I'll come up with some more. Thanks for any support.

1) Yes

2)1. mental toughness, extend
3. spell focus enchantment
5. maximize
6. greater mental toughness
9. spell penetration
10. heighten
12. greater spell penetration
15. insightful reflexes or greater spell focus enchantment, enlarge or empower



3) its optional not required unless you want to use cure light wands or use a RR item such as rings helms ect.. My opinion don't.

4) Chaosguards? Don't really care myself. choose Lawful Good or Chaotic Good and as the game is now you'll have the most options. I went Lawful Neutral and have regreted it somewhat seing as how Neutral don't mean much. Although now I do remember there is a item that had Spell Penitration on it but also had a "Tain" effect which as a good person you would take a neg level so in that reguard I had a item. Soon as dragonscale robes came out it was obsolete.

[Galapas]

1) Yes. Some people might have very specific ideas about exactly what they want to do, and take a lower score, but barring that, max it out. Wizards are the most dependent on their primary stat of any class.

2) You won't cripple yourself with any choice of feats at first and third level. There is a way to get one free feat respec, and up to level 4, they are pretty cheap. There are a lot of good ways to go - damage dealers like maximize, effects people like spell focus feats. I'd leave Heighten for your 9th level general feat or your 10th level metafeat. I like extend at 1st, saving maximize for when I have more power and spells mor worth maximizing.

3) You get a lot of skill points, 7/lvl because of int (8 at 8th lvl). You get almost no worthwhile class skills. You can ignore UMD early on, then put almost all your skill points into it when you get within striking distance of a ueseful lvl.

4) As stated above, there are three alignments with concrete benefits - LG for chaosgarde, N for any stability, and CG for ... I forget. They will affect your success less than the distraction caused by choosing a weird hairstyle. So as far as alignment goes, I recommend baldness.

[Indel_Eventine]

bah, triple post

[Indel_Eventine]

Bah triple post

[Indel_Eventine]

So I have just recently unlocked the drow and I've been trying to decide weather I want a sorc or wiz first. I think I'm going wiz so I can get an idea of what spells I want to take. So I have a few questions for all you wizzys out there

1) Should I max out int at 20 during creation?

2) At what level should I take what feats?

3) As a wizard do I need to increase my UMD? or does that come standard?

4) Is there any items that are good which should effect my starting alignment?

I think thats it for now, I'm sure I'll come up with some more. Thanks for any support.

I would max your primary stat for Wiz or Sorc. If it is your first, Wiz is the better choice, giving you a lot more feats and all the spells. It also teaches you SP conservation.

DO NOT worry about Dex - my first wiz was a dex build on the assumption that I could use a crossbow when low on SPs and still do damage - even took Heavy repeater as my extra feat. Turns out, around level 9 or so, you can't hit a darn thing, and no matter how pretty your robes are, the melee types will laugh at the AC you have. So CONSTITUTION! Also, some str is good, it is a pain to be burdened. WF have an added benefit of auto die hard, which is helpful, and make good wizards, but Elves and Drow get an extra SP enhancement for wizards, which will help you out.

I took extend at level 3 and then swapped it out before leveling up to 5 (doesn't cost much at that level).